(Greek: a witness)
A person who, for the Christian faith, freely and patiently suffers death at the hands of a persecutor. A martyr chooses to die rather than deny his faith by word or deed; he suffers patiently, that is, after the example of Christ, he does not resist his persecutors; he suffers death at the hands of one who, though he may assign some other reason, really acts through hatred of the Christian religion or of some Christian virtue. The early Christians, who bore witness to the truth of those facts upon which Christianity rests, were liable at any time to be given a choice between death and a denial of their testimony. Many of them, refusing to deny Christ, actually suffered death. Thus the name martyr, which in the very beginning of the Christian era meant a witness of Christ, was after a while given to those alone who suffered death for the faith.
There are five categories of martyrdom: